I passed my driving test, again!

Before I lived in Los Angeles I lived in Europe, in a relatively small town in south Tipperary and in London. I have actually lived a quite a few locations over the years, mostly to do with work. once upon a time.
Of course one had to drive in Ireland to get anywhere, although public transportation around the country isn’t bad, it’s easier if you can drive!

My first experience driving was with my sisters husband, I think I was around 16 and the car was a Hillman Hunter. I was outside town and the small road was clear of any other traffic and might remain that way for days!

I was a bit wobbly but I managed to get the steering to a place I didn’t create too much fear in my passenger. After I left Ireland and headed back to London I went about getting Professional driving lessons. I was able to get the help I needed by a friend who taught divers out at Heathrow airport. Being a Irish community it will come as no surprise his name was Sean. So I went about getting a driving lesson every week for quite a while. Thing was after a bit we got the whole driving thing down it was more of a social thing every week. We would go for a drive and try some new things, then off to the pub for a couple of pints before he drove me home.

Before I took my driving test in England there was a permanent move back to Ireland due to family issues. So I am back in Ireland and it time to get a driving license. I applied and took the test and passed, Yay! I have a license and have the freedom of the road.

Well after you passed a test at that time 1980, you were presented with a certificate which was valid I think for fourteen month’s. Somebody in my family who will remain nameless said “why don’t you wait and use that time before you get the full license?”

So I did just that! And I waited until the cert had been used up before going for a full license. But being a cert and not a full license after it had expired (by a bloody day), it couldn’t be used to get a full license. So had to go take the bloody test again!!

I applied and yes of course I got the same instructor for the test. he was a bit surprised to see me again. Well it’s not something you would expect, but after I explained what happened he was going to make this as simple as possible.

First he asked me questions about road signs & we moved briskly out to the vehicle.
I did the required moving mirrors and making sure we were both strapped in. (Dangerous country roads you know). So he asked me to drive around the block, I did so without incident. We pulled in and he turned to me and asked “have you forgotten anything since I last saw you? I said “no” he said you passed, now go and get a bloody license!

Great story! I lived in a small town with one examiner–it took me three tries to get my licence and on the last try, he didn’t ask me to parallel park. He just sighed. He and I both knew I would NEVER parallel park at any point in my life and so far I haven’t:-)

This is hilarious. Congratulations on getting your license twice! And it reminds me of a friend of mine from England. When he moved to the States he went to get a driving license. The instructor looked at his UK license and said, “That’s worth three of our licenses.”